PRE

Candle Conference

Peter Vardy’s annual conferences are certainly ones not to miss – having been the previous year, the Year 13 PRE class knew what to expect; a day of Vardy’s interesting, yet eccentric talks on topics studied in relation to the OCR PRE A level course. The conference took place in Bloomsbury Baptist Church where, despite the pews being extremely uncomfortable, the lectures make the experience enjoyable. Peter Vardy is internationally known as a leader in the fields of Religious Studies, as well as being the author to fifteen books including “The Puzzle of God” and “Ethics Matters”. Having also studied many of Vardy’s own opinions within the A level course, we knew what to expect.

This year, the talk dived into the year 2 material on the A Level course, addressing topics such as the religious discourse and the nature of God. The first talk of the day by Peter Vardy was on the true nature of God and whether God’s omniscience is compatible with human free will or whether the two are simply inherently incompatible. He also engaged the audience into understanding whether an omniscience God is, or should be, responsible for the suffering in the world. The day later went on to address the topic of Religious Language in which Vardy discussed the ways in which God should be spoken about without anthropomorphising or reducing his innately supreme essence. However, Vardy also addressed many criticisms within religious language – one of them being the idea that arguably talk of God can essentially be rendered meaningless on the grounds it cannot be verified or falsified adequately.

Overall, the talks by Peter Vardy allowed us to engage in deeper discussions and understandings of topics taught on the syllabus, widening our depth of criticism for scholarly understandings. The day ended with Peter Vardy opening up the floor to the audience, taking on questions, participating in debate. The day was a success where we got an even deeper understanding of many critical appreciations of scholars we have discussed in class, as well as having the opportunity to participate in discussions with many other OCR PRE A level candidates.

Hannah Ashraf, Year 13

Year 11 Synagogue Trip

Just before February half term, all of the Year 11 PRE students took time out from lessons to visit St. Stephens’s church, a staggering five minutes from school. Once we arrived, Reverend Steve and his colleague Sam welcomed us and showed us around the church. Once we had explored the church, Reverend Steve began to explain the role of the church, including its services and ways in which they help the local community. Along with some of Sam’s stunning modelling, we were able to see what they would wear usually whilst performing a service as well as how weekly services are performed.

After Reverend Steve had given a brief overview on the church, the floor was open and Steve and Sam had the huge task of answering all of our questions about day-to-day life in the church as well as the two main Christian celebrations: Christmas and Easter. They answered these with ease and we learnt a lot about the influence of church donations across the globe.

Overall the experience was very beneficial for all of us as we not only learnt more about Christian practices, but it was also a great opportunity for us to ask all of our burning questions.